There is always a time when playing games like SWTOR where we are stuck, confused or just unsure. You might want the best gear combination, best build tree or best dps. Maybe just want a levelling guide to help you out on Tatooine?
I found myself in one of these situations and decided to purchase the KillerGuides Sith Juggernaut guide for $30. Let me be clear. I bought this guide, because I had money to spare and wanted to see if it was true and report my findings here. I didn’t buy this guide by borrowing money, saving or putting myself in debt. I could easily lose this money. That’s why I did it.
Here is what the original blurb said:
Pages: 100
Highlights of the Star Wars: The Old Republic Sith Juggernaut Guide:
- Class-exclusive leveling strategies to fast forward your Sith Juggernaut to level 50 within a week
- Proven PvP strategies to go against all other classes as well as higher level opponents
- A complete run-down of class skills and recommendations for the best builds
- Detailed step-by-step walkthroughs to easily and quickly complete the important class quests
- A comprehensive equipment guide that highlights must-have Juggernaut gear as well as how to obtain them
- Walk a filthy rich Juggernaut using strategies that guarantee a non-stop inflow of credits
Plus the phrase “Jam-packed with advanced class-strategies, this Star Wars: The Old Republic Sith Juggernaut guide is your golden ticket to walk the ultimate tank!”.
So imagine my surprise when I purchased and downloaded this product that it was untrue. Shocker.
Before you read on, I advise you to read the official description of this guide,here.
First thing that struck me was the lack of pages in the PDF. There was 26 in total. Wait, what? Didn’t that say 100?
2 Pages are taken up by copyright info, don’t you dare steal this etc. You can be tracked and thrown in jail blah blah, going so far as to offer $100 reward if you snitch on someone who gave it to you.
Another issue with the guide is that according to the Killerguides website, the guide was updated on the 23rd December 2011. 3 days after release. As of writing, its now late Jan. We have also seen a major patch (1.1) in that time. So this guide is already out of date. Not only is the guide wrong in alot of places, but its also old news.
The other “lie” was the levelling strategies or lack thereof which will get me to level 50 in a week. Here is the entire list of contents in the PDF:
An eagle eyed Reddit member spotted that the companions listed aren’t even Sith Juggernaut companions. So another lie there. Either that or sheer laziness. You decide. See for yourself:
The list of companions should be:
- Vette - acquired on Korriban
- Malavai Quinn - acquired upon finishing Balmorra
- Jaesa Willsaam - acquired at the end of arc 1
- Lieutenant Pierce - acquired upon finishing Taris
- Broonmark - acquired on Hoth
You also get 2V-R8, a droid acquired when you get your ship. He can be brought along on missions and provides healing, oh and can punch enemies in the FACE.
How did I achieve this knowledge? Play all 50 levels? Bribe a member of Bioware? No, the swtor wiki. The guide creators inability to get the most basic of information correct astounds me.
The most offensive thing though however, is the complete lack of decent information.
In the chapter labelled, How to reduce damage taken, you would expect that for $30 you would have a large chunk of information on the best gear and where to get it. The best rotation and talent tree would also be nice. You know,INFORMATION. Instead you get genius information such as(I promise these are all true):
Use crowd control to reduce damage
Switch to Soresu lightsaber form to reduce damage received by 6%.
Use the Invincible ability.
Those above 3 “tips” took up a page of text.
Reading this in a PDF I spent money on angers me. The information is not only freely available on the internet, but its also present IN THE GAME. Hovering over the tooltips for abilities gives you the information available in the guide already! Everything in this guide is pointless and can be found anywhere else for free. It’s a disgrace.
Just because you take the official information and expand on it, doesn’t mean you can charge for it. Here, I’ll do it.
Original tooltip: Quicktravel, You can teleport to any found bind location. 30 minute cooldown.
Mine: Top Tip: Stop walking fool! Did you know you can teleport to multiple locations around the map, for free? To use this amazing ability you need to have right clicked on the transport bind spots. Be the envy of your friends with this time saver.
Also the final page of the PDF is so anticlimactic its laughable.
It just ends. I promise you there isn’t anymore, that is it. No thank you for buying, nothing.
So in other words, instead of a proper guide explaining each planet, (I can understand for the money, not a guide on the quests) a rough guide on what to do, I got this.
Here, let me do a guide. Just for you.
Follow these tips to power level your way to 50 in 7 days:
Deal damage
Don’t take too much damage
Group up often
Get good gear
Pick a tree to put your points in, any will do.
Use companions
Sell stuff
That will be $30 please, I accept Paypal.
Joking aside, that “guide” I posted is no different to the Killerguide. Tells us what we already know.
I have asked for a full refund, and will report back on my status as and when. But at the moment, my advice to you all is AVOID. It’s not worth even half the price and when you order, they have the temerity to ask for $100 more to get the entire set of guides. Which if they are anything like this one, should be avoided.
Anyone making a guide knows how lucrative it is. You make a PDF and sell it and you know what? It works. What ever happens to my money, they have already won. But don’t feel that you’re a fool or gullible. These people pray on those who are confused, lost and in need of guidance. Whispering in your ear at the right moment, pay us $30 and all the SWTOR secrets shall be yours. When in reality the information can be obtained anywhere.
Here is my top sources for obtaining FREE SWTOR information which is useful and trustworthy:
www.torhead.com
A great site, made by the same people as wowhead. Contains everything you need to know on SWTOR, from every item drop, quests and how to beat them, maps and mob info.
www.swtor.com
The original official site of this game and its forums within contain valuable user information. You can ask about builds, gear and tactics to get the most from your experience.
db.darthhater.com
Similar to torhead but does contain some different the useful information on the game, worth checking out.
In conclusion, do not buy these guides. Ever.
I gave them the benefit of the doubt and now they have my money and all I have is a lame guide which I could have got from any of the sites mentioned above.
Any updates on refunds will be posted here. But I don’t hold up much hope.
Bottom line:
Is it a scam? Yes.
Why? They are selling freely available information. This isn’t a crime in itself, as you could argue people are stupid if they pay for it. However, when a purchase is based on lies on their site, then that’s an issue. Do you think for a minute I would have bought this guide if I knew the content in it didn’t come from a player working hard but from Google instead?
Update 23/01/2012
I got an email response from Killerguides support after I asked for a full refund and complained how poor the guides are. Which reads as follows:
Dear customer,
We apologize for the inconvenience.
Currently some guides are in preparation. We are working with authors to keep updating essential part of the content inside each guide.
As the owner of the guide you will be able to download it once the guides are available and their updates, free of charge.
As a compensation, may I offer you the $30 coupon code you can use to purchase other products on our store?
Best regards
Still has no intention of returning my money it would seem. Also, there is no date on these new guides. I could be waiting months for it to be updated. Well shall see what happens. Stay tuned.
Update: 24/01/2012
Got an email response from them which stunned me.
Dear customer,
Thank you very much for your message.
Unfortunately I am unable to cancel an order once it has been downloaded. May I offer you an upgrade to bundle as for a compensation?
Please do not hesitate to contact us in case you have any other questions.
While their site doesn’t mention refunds, or promise a 30 day money back guarantee, it also doesn’t mention that if you download this product onto your hard drive, you waive all your rights.
Their own terms and conditions seem to look like a copy and paste job. After study, there is nothing in the T&C about downloading the product invalidates your ability to get a refund.
There is this line:
When purchasing an e-Book the customer has the right to download it up to three times within 72 hours. For his/her own, private purpose, he/she is entitled to store it on up to three computers and create a written copy of it. The customer is not allowed to put its contents at any third party disposal whether in the Internet, in Intranets, in Extranets or otherwise. The customer is held responsible that no third party shall gain access to the e-Book, or any digital or written copies of it, which was purchased by him/her.
And this one:
The customer is not entitled to claim updates of purchased e-Books. If an e-Book shall become updated the customer has the possibility to download the updated version within two weeks upon publication. The customer is responsible to keep himself/herself informed about available updated versions on our Internet sites.
So, we can sum up from all this, the following:
You MAY be entitled to a refund if you purchase the guide, but don’t download it. Which lets face, who is going to do that?
If the guide is updated, you will not be informed of this, you then only have 2 weeks to download the new version or you will have to buy it again.
In fairness, the first point about downloading seems to be a standard practice when it comes to e-books. But surely this clause has to be in the T&C’s? Is this the industry standard? So standard in fact, that you can forego putting it in your T&C’s?
Here is the bottom line. Can you get your money back if you don’t like it? Yes. The product is covered by a 60-day guarantee with Clickbank. Which means you can get a refund without having to go to the product owners – you are able to just do it through Clickbank. If like me though however, you bought it via Paypal, it’s game over.
However, just for laughs I’m going to open a Paypal dispute. Paypal themselves state:
If your seller doesn’t agree to refund your money, you may be able to open a dispute in the Resolution Center. You can open a dispute if you didn’t receive your item or you received something that doesn’t match the seller’s description. (You must open your dispute within 45 days of paying for your item.)
I could buy another guide off this site and it will be the best in the world. But when a customer gets burnt, even once, that’s it. I would advise anyone to try alternative sources, do not pay for guides like this.
They advertise and sell a product which is NOTHING like the version I downloaded.
Even though they have screwed up, I am not entitled to a refund because I downloaded it. What else am I going to do with it? It’s an e-book!
There is nothing else I can do, if anyone knows of any legal trick to get my money back, let me know.
Stay tuned for further updates.
Update: 29/01/2012
I have raised a dispute case with Paypal and after communicating with Killerguides, the same story appears. They are determined not to give me my money back and keep offering me vouchers for another guide. They don't quite get it, do they?
I have now taken it further with Paypal, so the ball is in their court.
Final Update: 22/02/2012
After opening a dispute with paypal about a month ago, they emailed be today with the results of my dispute. They said:
We have concluded our investigation into your case. Unfortunately, at this
time we are unable to decide this claim in your favour.
So providing proof to paypal that the product they sold me was an absolute lie wasn't enough? A word to the wise, avoid this company like the plague.
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